BJP enjoys strong support from corporate houses, indicates ADR report

Given the fact that the BJP has been receiving the lion’s share of the total corporate funding for the last five years, it can be doubtlessly assumed that the saffron party has been enjoying the support of the corporate houses since the decline of the then UPA regime. The study report released by the Association for Democratic Reforms has identified that of the 956.77 crores rupees received from the corporate houses by the political parties in the last five years, nearly 705.81 crores has gone to the BJP’s pocket. As per the law, the political parties must submit the details (such as the name, PAN number, and address) of donors who make more than Rs 20,000 as the donation. From the period 2012 to 2016, the prominent political parties of our country have gained a huge sum of Rs 1,070.68 crores as the donation under the category ‘donation above the sum of Rs 20,000’. The report says that the BJP, Congress and the NCP are the three prominent political parties which have received the majority of the donations. When the rightist parties primarily rely on the corporate donations, the leftist parties depend on the funds received from the associations and unions. Interestingly, the BSP is one of the national parties which have not acquired any donation under the ‘donation above the sum of Rs 20,000’ category in the aforementioned period. It is to be noted that the preponderance of the corporate donors has special interest in key sectors such as the mining, real estate, and power. The big question is: don’t these corporate houses influence the policies of the government?